Two fishermen from Newcastle received the scare of a lifetime when a five-meter-long great white shark began circling their boat, before the massive predator rammed its engine.
Belmont resident Tim Watson, 24, captured footage of the encounter that he and his friend Allan de Sylva, 23, had with a white shark off Blacksmiths beach on Saturday morning. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, the pair had been drifting for several hours and had only caught a few fish when the great white appeared around 10:30 a.m.
As the shark began to circle them, the pair quickly realized the predator was larger than their vessel. They estimate the great white was three feet longer than the boat, and just six inches narrower, according to Surfing Life .
“It felt like getting trapped in a room with an angry pit bull,” de Sylva said. “It wouldn’t leave us alone. You almost wanted to stop and admire it but it was being pretty aggressive. It was as big as a wagon car – that’s what it felt like looking at it.”
Video: Five-metre shark gives two fisherman in a tinny quite the nudge: http://t.co/h2NdNuBWha pic.twitter.com/f8STSYdIS7 — SurfingLife Magazine (@SurfingLife) January 18, 2015
Watson noted that the fishermen had blood in the boat from their catch, which was washed in and out of the vessel before the white shark appeared.
“When it rose up we realized how big it was,” he recalled. “It then stopped and nudged the boat. If you watch the video closely the boat rocks a solid two to three foot to the edge. If it had hit it much harder the boat would have taken in a bit of water. A few times it actually started to bring its face out of the water and was rubbing it along the boat or something.”
Exclusive: Mark Richards talks surfing community’s reaction to great white shark in Newcastle: http://t.co/s5E44qPtiO pic.twitter.com/sa47s49iMk — SurfingLife Magazine (@SurfingLife) January 16, 2015
As their video ends, the boat can be seen rocking as the white shark hits it. Sufficiently frightened, the two men tried to start their engine to leave the area, but when they did, the great white rammed the motor with its head.
“I started to pull and it came right underneath and head butted the engine and tried to open its mouth,” Watson said. “I was quite nervous and a bit shaken.”
Massive great white shark haunts Australian city http://t.co/j3rN7p0Psv pic.twitter.com/PpC35blAOQ — Yahoo (@Yahoo) January 16, 2015
Though white sharks have been filmed investigating a motor before, as the Inquisitr previously reported, the experience left its mark on Watson, who notes that he is unlikely to go so far out in the ocean in such a small boat again.
It is unclear whether the great white that struck the fisherman’s boat is the same shark, nicknamed Bruce, that has kept Newcastle beaches closed over the last week.
[Image: Tim Watson via the Newcastle Herald ]
